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Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Bag into the swing of things!

Hey all! I haven't written a new post in a while, I took a long break from blogging as you might have seen.

I'd like my first post to be about the new world I've been playing in the latest Minecraft update 1.0.0

I have been playing the new Hardcore mode. Hardcore mode for you who don't know are whenever you die that's it. No do overs or restarts. It deletes your world to make it no longer playable again. I have been playing on this world ever since 1.0 has been out and I am loving this mode. It makes everything much better, you have to be more cautious and you actually have to keep track of where you are in the world as opposed to just dying to respawn in your bed.

In addition to you only having one life, the game difficulty is stuck on Hard which means monsters are much more difficult to kill and will hurt you for a lot more damage - that makes caves and ravines much more difficult to take out.  

I will be posting updates to how my world is going and hopefully a lot more tutorials later.

Join us at defconminecraft.net - a PvP survival server!

Bag into the swing of things!

Hey all! I haven't written a new post in a while, I took a long break from blogging as you might have seen.

I'd like my first post to be about the new world I've been playing in the latest Minecraft update 1.0.0

I have been playing the new Hardcore mode. Hardcore mode for you who don't know are whenever you die that's it. No do overs or restarts. It deletes your world to make it no longer playable again. I have been playing on this world ever since 1.0 has been out and I am loving this mode. It makes everything much better, you have to be more cautious and you actually have to keep track of where you are in the world as opposed to just dying to respawn in your bed.

In addition to you only having one life, the game difficulty is stuck on Hard which means monsters are much more difficult to kill and will hurt you for a lot more damage - that makes caves and ravines much more difficult to take out.  

I will be posting updates to how my world is going and hopefully a lot more tutorials later.

Join us at defconminecraft.net - a PvP survival server!

Bag into the swing of things!

Hey all! I haven't written a new post in a while, I took a long break from blogging as you might have seen.

I'd like my first post to be about the new world I've been playing in the latest Minecraft update 1.0.0

I have been playing the new Hardcore mode. Hardcore mode for you who don't know are whenever you die that's it. No do overs or restarts. It deletes your world to make it no longer playable again. I have been playing on this world ever since 1.0 has been out and I am loving this mode. It makes everything much better, you have to be more cautious and you actually have to keep track of where you are in the world as opposed to just dying to respawn in your bed.

In addition to you only having one life, the game difficulty is stuck on Hard which means monsters are much more difficult to kill and will hurt you for a lot more damage - that makes caves and ravines much more difficult to take out.  

I will be posting updates to how my world is going and hopefully a lot more tutorials later.

Join us at defconminecraft.net - a PvP survival server!

I Won Challenge 17 at Let’s Ink It Up

I won Challenge 17 at Let’s Ink It Up with my Flower Bookmark. I am so excited ….Yes I’m doing the happy dance! I set myself a goal this year to win a challenge with something I created, and finally I won! I can now tick that off my bucket list! My next challenge to myself is to make it onto a Design Team.

I won 2011

Vincenzo's 16th Birthday November 2011 026

Thanks for stopping by

Trish Munro

Победители задания "Ночной полет"

Здравствуйте, дорогие наши читатели!
В этот раз участников было не много, мы благодарны каждому из вас. Но конкурс есть конкурс и давайте наконец узнаем кто же победил.
В этот раз разрыв между работами по голосам дизайн команды составил всего по 2 балла.
Итак, победителем стала Елена Alenka Пере под  №3 с ее завораживающими тэгами:
Лена, ПОЗДРАВЛЯЕМ!
Лена, вы можете забрать наш баннер победителя MarkaDecor с боковой панельки:
А также вам полагается подарочный сертификат на покупку в нашем интернет-магазине MarkaDecor. Для получения сертификата Вам необходимо отправить электронное письмо на адрес: marina@markadecor.ru с пометкой в теме письма "Победитель задания "Ночной полет" - мы отправим Вам сертификат.

И наш ТОП3:
1 место: Елена Alenka Пере - работа № 3 - победитель задания "Ночной полет"
2 место: Sleepless - работа № 5 - с АТС с ночными феями
3 место: Лучик света - работа № 4 - с АТС с волшебными феями
Sleepless и Лучик света получают баннер ТОП3 от MarkaDecor (его код вы можете скачать на боковой панельке).
А приглашенным дизайнером в одном из следующих заданий мы бы хотели видеть Елена Alenka Пере (забирайте баннер с боковой панельки) и ждем также ваше письмо на адрес: marina@markadecor.ru с пометкой в теме письма "Приглашенный дизайнер" для дальнейших инструкций:

Девушки, еще раз, огромное спасибо за участие в наших заданиях!

Творить, мечтать, вдохновлятся. 
Каждый день с МаркаДекор!

You're Invited




Today, Wednesday, November 30th 2011, I am celebrating the official launch of Theft of Swords, the first Orbit published book of the Riyria Revelations series.  It will be held at 7pm eastern, in Falls Church, Virginia at One More Page Books. (2200 N Westmoreland Street #101 Arlington, VA 22213) Every human living on the planet is invited, and yes, they will be selling the books there, and yes I will be signing them.

One More Page Books is a wonderful little independent bookstore. This “shop around the corner” is owned by Eileen McGervey  whose passion for books and reading is evident in her choice to leave the world of corporate marketing for one of books, chocolate, and wine. This place is a gem and deserves to be noticed.

Two years ago, on October 1st, 2008, I held the official release of The Crown Conspiracy at the Barnes and Noble in Clarendon. About twenty people came. When you realize no one had yet read the book, there was no Internet buzz, and I was new to the area, that was very good.  Sure, most everyone there was someone I knew. They came so I didn’t look stupid, and I appreciated it.

I have no idea if anyone will come tomorrow. It’s not like we sell advanced tickets, and all the people who came to the first launch read the book already. In numerous discussions, my wife and I have decided that at least five people will show. Her and I of course, then there’s my now famous daughter, a close friend and my agent who is traveling in from New York for the party. I’m hoping more will show up, but if becoming an author has taught me one thing, it’s not to get my hopes up.

I’ve done signings at huge books stores where Alan Alda had a line stretched out the door. They had a reserved parking place for me in the front of the store with a sign that read: “Reserved for Author.” My wife saw that and then looked at me as if reassessing my value. Like that Old Spice commercial: Look at the sign, look at your man, look at the sign, look at your man. I thought perhaps I was about to gain a new level of respect in her eyes, and then we went in and it was just me, Robin, and the store clerk all night. Well, not all night. We only hung around for thirty minutes and then gave up and left. The sad part was I didn’t even get to use the parking spot. We didn’t see it until after we had parked in the big garage.  In retrospect it was for the best. I didn’t feel I deserved an author reserved spot. I didn’t even feel I deserved a wife.

So as I look forward to the big event, it is with a degree of trepidation. There won’t be a sign, but I’m sure there will be more people. After all I’m guaranteed at least five, even if I am counting myself as one.

Hope to see you there.

Monday, November 28, 2011

Тилитилитеста

Пока все собираются на Хеллоу Тедди, я вам покажу моих невесту с женихом.
Нынче вампиры влюбляются в людей (как в "Сумерках"), давеча жираф влюбился в антилопу, а у меня Волчок и Зайка сочетаются законным браком.
Совет да любовь :)









Парочка не прочь обзавестись домиком вот тут.

Temporary solution for Ompf forum

Since the ompf.org forum (the one and only forum for ray tracing aficionados) has been down for over a week, and only the administrator can bring it back online, Jacco Bikker has set up a server with a temporary replacement for the forum (see comments in the previous post) and asked me to point the readers of this blog who frequented ompf (and who are -like me- craving for a daily dose of ray tracing news with accompanying withdrawal symptoms) to the new address at:


UPDATE: there's an interesting discussion and technical details on the improvements in the Brigade path tracer in this topic

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Розыгрыш конфетки

Здравствуйте, дорогие наши читатели!
Скажем честно, мы не ожидали, что будет столько желающих. Спасибо всем, кто принял участие в нашей конфетке. Мы очень надеемся, что в вашем лице нашли добрых друзей и постоянных участников наших заданий, а уж мы, в свою очередь, постараемся вас радовать новыми интересными заданиями и замечательными призами и конфетками!

Не будем вас томить долгими ожиданиями - пришло время объявить имя счастливчика!
В качестве рэндома у нас выступил муж нашего идейного вдохновителя и по совместительтву директора и основателя компании MarkaDecor Марины Таенковой. Мы попросили его назвать число от 1 до 165 (Solimanka, вы не добавили ссылку на свой блог в Мистер Линки, поэтому вас не было в списках, но мы вас посчитали)... итак:
Юля, поздравляем Вас от всей души!
Юля, ждем от вас письмо на адрес marina@markadecor.ru с пометкой в теме письма "Победитель конфетки" чтобы отправить вам ваш подарок.

Остальных просьба не расстраиваться, буквально после Нового года вас ожидает еще одна вкусная конфетка!

И напоминаем, сейчас в блоге идет запись на конфету-задание "Сказочный Новый год с MarkaDecor - Драконы!" с шикарным призом:

Творить,мечтать,вдохновлятся. 
Каждый день с МаркаДекор!

Задание № 10 "Оригинальная коробочка"

Здравствуйте, дорогие мастерицы на все руки!

Вот и наступило время задать вам новую задачку-задание!


Каждый из нас любит получать подарки на праздники..
В новогоднюю ночь особо приятно, когда под елкой томится красивенная коробочка и на ней ярлычок, адресованный именно Вам – лучшего подарка не придумаешь! И становится уже не так важно что внутри, какой подарок -  эта коробочка уже сама по себе – НАСТОЯЩИЙ подарок.
В этом задании Вы можете совместить полезное с приятным:
сделайте оригинальную, самую оригинальную и красивую коробочку в подарок для Ваших близких и примите участие в нашем задании!

Обязательные условия участия:
  1. Коробочка должна быть оригинальная – интересная форма или оригинальное оформление. Примечание: коробочки с новогодним декором или в подарок на день рождения / другой праздник - с зимним декором - имеют преимущество!
  2. Присутствие ярлычка – по желанию ( с ярлычком работы- отдельно или на коробочке- будут в приоритете )
  3. Баннер конкурса ставим на боковую панель блога или пост с активной картинкой (ссылка на наш блог) и кратеньким описанием задания в Вашем блоге
  4. Ссылка на Вашу работу должна вести на пост с выполненной работой в Вашем блоге ( не на картинку, а на пост с картинкой)
Внимание: Допускается участие с вашей работой не больше чем в трех заданиях (включая наше задание), исключая тематическое по коробочкам!
Сроки проведения конкурса: с 27.11.11 по 12.12.11.

А вот и несколько работ для вдохновения...

Наш Приглашенный Дизайнер Юлия Мозговая.


У нее получился очень креативный сапожок-коробочка.
Вот , что пишет на Юлия:
- Здравствуйте! Меня зовут Юлия. Скрапом и шитьем я увлеклась около восьми месяцев назад, когда однообразные деньки декретного отпуска начали понемногу навевать грусть:)
С удовольствием принялась за это задание - всегда любила красиво упакованные подарки, а особенно на Новый год. Этот праздник для меня - радостные мгновения детства, улыбки и смех, ощущение сюрприза и ожидание сказки. Может, именно поэтому коробочка получилась такой сказочно-детской.
Коробочка состоит из двух частей, в каждую из которых можно положить подарочки. Выполнена из бумаги для пастели, покрыта прозрачной кракелюрной краской (слои неровные, поэтому создается эффект изморози на сапожке). Внутри скрапбумага от Brenda Walton. Верхняя часть сапожка украшена кружевом, тесьмой, бантом (тоже вскрыла кракелюрной краской), сеточкой и полужемчужинками. Голова Деда Мороза выполнена в технике скульптурно-текстильной куклы. На шапочке висит ярлычок с пожеланием.
 МК коробочки-сапожка можно будет посмотреть в моем блоге.

 И коробочки нашей Дизайн-Команды:


Сегодня у нас выпал снег!!!!!и всю невесомость и свежесть мне захотелось вложить в эту маленькую коробочку!!!!
Для коробочки использовала : акриловую краску, ленты, кружево, цветочки,листочкипроволоку с бусинами.

Коробочка в  винтажном стиле в тонах меда и корицы.
В изготовлении использована почти вся линейка  Distress,  Distress - подушки 4-х тонов   Walnut StainWild HoneyVintage PhotoScattered Straw, скрап-бумага и текстурный кардсток, пудра для эмбоссинга -  Tim Holtz  distress powder  Vintage Photo, Tim Holtz Ancient Golds  Princess Gold, глиттеры - Vintage PhotoAntique Bronze, жемчуг, палочки корицы, вязаные кружева, цветы, акриловая золотая краска, бронзовый контур.

Я очень люблю дарить подарки, даже больше, чем получать их). И всегда стараюсь как-то оригинально их упаковать и приподнести. Считаю, что одариваемый должен запомнить не только сам подарок, но и ту радость, которую он испытывал пока доставал из упаковки презент.
Вот и в этот раз я сделала необычные коробочки-бонбоньерки - стоить развязать бантики и створки коробочки распадутся:
Размер коробочек: основание 7*7 см, высота 10 см.
Материалы: бумага из новогодней коллекции Susan Winget от K&Co, Stickles цвет Yellow, штамп от студии "Елена", прозрачная пудра для эмбоссинга Super Fine, подушечка для эмбоссинга, пигментые чернила ColorBox цвет Chianti, стразы/полужемчуг, атласные ленты, дырокол Martha Stewart.


Анна Чверткина (добрый друг-вдохновитель MarkaDecor)
 Вот такой конфетный "домик"
 

 

 


Забирайте  себе нашу основную картинку задания. 
Напоминаем, что сылка на Вашу работу должна вести на пост с выполненной работой в Вашем блоге ( не на картинку, а на пост с картинкой)

Итоги конкурса будут подведены 15 декабря. 
По результатам задания будет выбран победитель, который получит приз: подарочный сертификат на покупку в нашем магазине и баннер победителя,
также будут выбраны серебро с бронзой + Приглашенный дизайнер!

Ждем ваши чудесные коробочки!

Творить, мечтать, вдохновлятся. 
Каждый день с МаркаДекор!

27 ноября - День Матери!


Writing Advice 23—Editing




 
I was recently asked if a writer should edit as they go or just write the novel and then go back. I think the generally held wisdom is not to look back and just plow through to the end, but I don't entirely agree. I also don't think you should edit as you go. I think you might see why I decided to write a blog post on this. A tweet won't cut it.

Should you, or should you not, edit as you go?

The pitfall of editing as you go is that you end up like a car stuck in the mud just spinning your tires. Editing is a form of quicksand. Nothing will ever be perfect, and you can edit forever. Writers can spend a year working on the first chapter. Then the realization that there are twenty more chapters in the novel can seal the fate of a career. You can also spend three times the hours writing a book only to get half done and realize the plot won't work. If you had skipped the editing, you would have saved months. And then there's the frustration of polishing prose to a fine luster only to discover you have to cut that chapter, now all that work that you made so perfect, and all that time is lost.

So why am I not against editing until the book is done?

Two reasons. The first is that invariably you will get to a point in the writing of any novel where you hit a patch of trouble. This leads to a lack of confidence, both in the work and in your own abilities as a writer. Your mind will play tricks on you, spin you into a depression and cause you to remember everything you've written up to that point as crap. It is very easy to fall into a defeated state and just give up.

The solution to this mid-book doldrums is to go back and read the first chapter again. If you did a good job on it, you'll impress yourself right back into confidence. You'll remember what was great about this idea, and why you wanted to write it in the first place. But, it has to be good.

As a result, I always polish that first chapter as a safety net. Even if I later cut it, it served it's purpose, and that is to ensure I have something in the work that I'm proud of, something that can inspire me to keep writing.

I don't edit much more...until I reach the middle of the book. Once I pass the middle point I will go back and do one light pass—a read through really, but I make corrections as I read. Why do I do this?

When I write I don't as easily commit a story to memory as when I read one. I often forget what it is I wrote until I re-read it. I also tend to forget little things that I put in and thought could be expanded later. Furthermore, in re-reading I get ideas. I see patterns emerging that I hadn't noticed while writing. I see things I want to make certain I take advantage of.

Editing at the halfway point allows me to reorient myself, reevaluate the tone, pace and feel so that as I go ahead, I can better aline myself to conclude the book with the best possible results. It is the same as reading a book and anticipating what will come next, or how it will end. The reader will do this, so I want to do this too, and then either take the book another way, or really hit that nail hard to provide the reader with the best possible reading experience. Sometimes when you re-read you can see that the obvious best ending isn't the way you are planning to go, but because you are only at the midway point, you still have time to make it happen.

The last point of divergence from the wisdom of not editing until the book is done, is that when I sit down to commence writing, I often read over and edit the last page I wrote the day before. I do this just to get myself back into the mood to write, and to get my mind back into the same mindset—to orient my thoughts to pick up where I left off.

Aside from these however, I would advise not editing until the book is done.

Nothing is ever easy...including responding to a tweet about editing.

С Днём рождения , Максим!


Too cool for Christmas....NOT!

Card for a Teenager!




I would like to enter my card into following challenges:

Week 47 - Italian Christmas -http://polkadoodle.blogspot.com/ #
#Challenge#120-Christmas Fun -http://pollycraftchallengeblog.blogspot.com
Ch#13: "C" as...http://deepoceanchallengeblog.blogspot.com [C as ..circles,christmas,Casper(name of the digi-stamp)] #
Challenge#34 -Sentiments -http://cardmakinmamas.blogspot.com #
IIC#34:Make your own embellishements:http://inkyimpressionschallenges.blogspot.com [ (top left corner - big white glittered snowflake,metal rings and baubles) and (2 big red glittered snowflakes which do not have a gem in the middle)] #
CRAFT Challenge 130-Unusual Christmas -http://trimmiescraftchallenge.blogspot.com #
Challenge#13 -Christmas theme -http://www.papercreationsink.com #


Elements I used:
The digi-stamp of the boy called "Casper too cool for Christmas" is a free download from "Pollycraft" . (Thank you) which I coloured with promarkers. The background is another freebie from by "scribblesbysandy" and I distressed it with Tim Holtz's  "shabby shutters" distress ink. The little ticket above Casper's head is from whenthescraphitsthefun and so is the circle sentiment at the top middle. The circle sentiment lower left is  from "scrappyfairy". I used Tonic punches to make the snowflakes where I put a gem in the middle and glittered. The rest of the snowflakes I made myself using the background as an inspiration and glittered. The baubles hanging on my handmade glittered snowflake were also handmade by myself but I have no idea where I downloaded the digi-stamps of the baubles from but full credit for the  to the artist. I colored them with promakers and glittered. I used metal wire and wrapped it around one of my glue bottles to achieve a circle shape for hanging my baubles. For the base of the card I used a "lace trim" punch. Ribbons are from my stash.

Thank You very much for visiting!
All Comments are appreciated very much!
*** Michaela ***

His Eye is on the Sparrow

This is the scripture that my loved sister in Christ, Linda picked for this week:

Matthew 6:25-34 ".... Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?...."

This verse also spoke to me this week:

Matthew 10:29-31 Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and on of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father... Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Both of these scriptures together show how much God cares for all of His creation, but He cares the most for people, for YOU, for ME...

I love the old hymn His Eye is on the Sparrow. I have posted 2 versions of these words. The first one is by the group Selah and is the traditional song. The second one is a newer version sung by Audrey Assad. I have listened to both of these songs over and over this last week and they blessed my heart so much. I hope you enjoy them too.






Linda's challenge was to make a card with a bird on it... dp, stamp, charm....etc.
I used my little nuthatch sitting on the fence from the newly released set by Mark's Finest Papers, a Heinrich company, called "PEACEFUL NUTHATCH" . I ink spray smashed the sky, and watercolored the trees and bird. I added glitter-styrofoam ball snow to the trees and fence. I made my card an easel card.











This week's sponsor is Sweet and Sassy. Make sure you check out what my Stampin' Sisters in Christ have created.



Saturday, November 26, 2011

Sweet Stampin' Punches and Dies


Our challenge this week is to use your punches and dies.  We are being sponsored by Pollycraft and the winner gets to choose 5 digis.  For my DT card I have used the image So Tall, coloured with Promarkers.  The flowers are made using a couple of Tonic punches and the swirl is a Marianne die.


Don't forget to check the Sweet Stampin' Challenge blog tomorrow for last weeks prize winners.

Friday, November 25, 2011

New videos of Brigade!

The developers behind the Brigade path tracer (Jacco Bikker and Jeroen van Schijndel) have released two very impressive videos on Youtube and the jump in quality and performance is quite huge. The scene in the video runs smoothly on just one GTX 470 at 8spp and 640x360 render resolution (1280x720 display resolution) with very little noise:



This latest version of the Brigade path tracer contains at least two major improvements compared to previous versions: multiple importance sampling and a Blinn shader for glossy materials (e.g. the floor) which greatly enhances the realism of the scene (and seems to converge very fast). The kernel now runs on the GPU only.




Very impressive what they have achieved so far. With an extra GPU, the noise should almost vanish and become imperceptible after playing a while. And with Nvidia's Kepler and AMD's compute-focused GCN (HD7000) on the horizon, this path tracer is going to become very interesting (when the code will be ported to OpenCL in AMD's case). Something like real-time photorealistic chess rendered on the GPU is very close now. Jacco also mentions in the comments under the video that a new game is in the works with support for animated objects (including skeletal animation).

The mere thought of having truly real-time, photoreal global illumination in games is the most exciting thing that has happened in computer graphics over the past ten years. The last time I was this excited was with the introduction of real-time lighting and shadowing with normal mapping in Doom 3, first shown to the world on the MacWorld Expo 2001:



I can't wait to get my hands dirty and experiment with the new Brigade code.

Frases Ilustradas





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